Identity

It is very popular online to choose a word or a theme for the new year.

I think that I will join in.  :)

My word for 2012 - the word that the Lord seems to be impressing upon my heart as personally important, is IDENTITY.

The forties are proving to be an interesting decade.  I like them.  (I certainly like them better than the alternative.)  Of course there are things I don't like about being over forty years of age, but mostly, it is a satisfying stage of life.  I'm sure you've heard it before, but it truly does feel as if you begin to fit into your own self.  You start to define what is really "you," as opposed to what you've picked up from others.  You begin to drop burdens that weren't yours to carry all long; but to pick up others that were.  Your responsibilities fit.

To that end, "Identity."

I have struggled throughout my life to know who I am.  I've pulled my security and station from family (husband and children, brothers and sisters, parents) or from church, or theology, or shakily enough, from friends.

This is natural, I think, particularly for a stay-at-home mother.  It is wrong, though, and I've likely been one of the most insecure people you've ever met - and that is because I was drawing my security from the wrong source.

We are each supposed to be who we were fully meant to be through Christ.  We are to identify with Him, first.

I am not a wife first, I am a Christian.
I am not a mother first, I am a Christian.
I am not an American first, I am a Christian.
I am not a daughter or sister first, I am a Christian.

If I am a Christ-follower first, and I find my confidence and security in my relationship with God through the gift of Jesus Christ, then I will not label myself nor become discouraged and defeated with myself when I struggle or fail in any of my human relationships.  I will realize that my worth does not come from these relationships (as precious as they are....) but that thru Christ I have the promise of renewal and redemption and forgiveness and hope that I can begin again and the Holy Spirit lives in me to help me in my weaknesses.

When I seek to find and establish my identity in Christ, my relationships will naturally be blessed by the overflow.  I will be a better wife, a better mother, a better daughter, sister, and citizen. 

But Christ is first - over everything.

If you pray for me in 2012, this is a good place to begin - that I might know Him better and find my IDENTITY in Him.  Is there a word or a way that I might pray for you? 

God Wins. Simple eschatology from an ordinary housewife.

I had a recent epiphany that warmed me as understanding spread - "how to live peacefully in the midst of crazy times?" 

How not to go over the edge with panic over a million things?  How not to grow hardened and cynical, how to avoid becoming a part of the angry, raging crowd that seems to grow larger by the day?

My husband has said it to me before over the years, but I did not fully realize it until now.

In the end, it comes down to grasping one simple thing. 

God wins.

At times like these, when it seems that everyone is tense with worry and fear; when famine, tornadoes, earthquakes, faltering economies and nuclear meltdowns have dominated the calendar - it is essential to see the big picture, to keep this perspective in mind:

God wins.

We look ahead, through the struggles, the questions, the tears...and as we blink to see, we understand that God wins.

The book of Revelation was written so that we would not put our trust in Government, nor in gold, nor in a peaceful society, nor in the stock market.  It was not written so that we would count the days and be tied in knots over time tables and dramatic imagery guaranteed to strike fear into our hearts.  It was written to give us peace, to give us hopeful perserverance that one day - God wins.

Fear does a horrible thing in the human life.  It debilitates, it freezes, it makes us angry and hateful.  Fear steals - it steals our joy and our hope and our peace.   Fear drives us to focus on ourselves rather than on the things of God and His working in the world today.  It even steals our desire to do anything today that would make tomorrow better.  What's the point, anyway?

If we live by the stock market or the economic forecast, our peace will quickly turn to panic and our inability to physically prepare for what may or may not come.

If we look to government for our peace, we become angry and exasperated, not just with our leaders but with each other.

Sunny skies and good weather and good crops can not bring us peace - the weather is a petulant two year old prone to tantrums.

Starving children, rain that does not fall, spouses that are not faithful, earth that shakes, gas prices, food indexes, health care systems, disease....death....

One day, these things will be made right.

This is how we endure, how we hope, how we have peace in our hearts through troubled times.

God Wins.  Good wins.  Evil falls, is trampled, overcome.  We hurt, we mourn through this night, but joy is promised in the morning of the Resurrection, when God will restore what the worm has eaten and the locust has destroyed.

When fearful, know this.  God triumphs!  He makes all things new!  He restores, he redeems, he heals our wounds and our diseases.  Not always now, but sometimes now, and if not now, someday, certainly.  He is only good, and fully good.  He is only just, He is only loving. 

When broken-hearted over what you have seen or lived through, lift up your head .  Redemption is near!

When paralyzed because all seems hopeless, get up and do the next thing.  You can live with joy and purpose, you can take heart and have great hope - even in terribly difficult situations - because there is a God, and in the final analysis of future things (eschatology,) He wins.